In the manufacture of certain types of thin-film circuits, also known as hybrid integrated circuits (HIC's), circuit patterns are deposited on one surface of a thin relatively fragile ceramic substrate. Initially, relatively large numbers of identical circuits are deposited at discrete areas on a large-area substrate, such as twenty circuits in one example, after which the large substrate is scribed and broken, and border areas are removed, to form the individual rectangular circuits.
In the past, it has been customary to test the individual circuit areas while still on the large substrate, prior to the scribing and breaking operation, and to mark the bad circuit areas in a later detectable way, as by applying a dot of black ink to the bad circuit areas. Then, after scribing and breaking by hand, the circuits have been inspected manually and the good circuits loaded into a receiver, such as a tray having individual slots for receiving the good circuits, for storage and transport to subsequent processing operations wherein the thin film circuits are fabricated with other components into complete circuit assemblies such as used in telephone sets.
Contemporaneously with the development of this invention, automatic equipment has been developed to scribe and break the large substrate, after testing and marking, to form the individual cicuits, and to load the circuits from one substrate in a single file row into a temporary storage device, such as an elongated magazine.